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The Altera USB-Blaster adapter interfaces a USB port on a host computer to an Altera FPGA mounted on a printed circuit board. The cable sends configuration data from the PC to a standard 10-pin header connected to the FPGA.

You can use the USB-Blaster adapter to iteratively download configuration data to a system during prototyping or to program data into the system during production.

Download:

• Altera USB Blaster User Guide (844)
• Altera Quartus II Web Edition (1119)

Sidreloc is a tool for relocating SID tunes any number of whole pages, using a novel but remarkably simple algorithm. It can also relocate all zero-page variables used by the tune.

Sidreloc is capable of relocating 91% of HVSC #56 out of the box. Many of the remaining tunes can be relocated by tweaking the settings to fit them.

While the tool is SID specific, the fundamental algorithm could easily be adapted to relocate all sorts of 6510/6502 machine code that meets a couple of requirements (see “Observations” below).

Sidreloc is primarily a linux program, but it’s open source (MIT license) and you are encouraged to port it to different operating systems. Good patches will be merged into the official version.

Download:

• Sidreloc v1.0 (Win32) (895)
• Sidreloc v1.0 (Sources) (822)

source: linusakesson.net

CCS64 is a Commodore 64 Emulator for PC developed by Per Håkan Sundell.

CCS64 is shareware. This means that the program is free to use and to copy, but if you like it and use it regularly I would appreciate that you would register the program.

Download: CCS64 v3.9 (962)

source: www.ccs64.com

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from Wikipedia:

The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F; however, the Atari 2600 receives credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.

The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200, in 1982, the VCS was renamed “Atari 2600″, after the unit’s Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game—initially Combat and later Pac-Man.

The Atari 2600 was wildly successful, and during much of the 1980s, “Atari” was a synonym for this model in mainstream media and, by extension, for video games in general.

The Atari 2600 was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York in 2007. In 2009, the Atari 2600 was named the second greatest video game console of all time by IGN, who cited its remarkable role as the console behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983, and called it “the console that our entire industry is built upon.”

For the first year of production, the VCS was manufactured in Sunnyvale, California. The consoles manufactured there had thick internal RF shielding, and thick plastic molding around the sides and bottom. These added weight to the console, and because all six switches were on the front, these consoles were nicknamed “Heavy Sixers”. After this first year, production moved to Hong Kong, and the consoles manufactured there had thinner plastic molding. In 1978, only 550,000 units from a production run of 800,000 were sold, requiring further financial support from Warner to cover losses. This led directly to the disagreements that caused Atari Inc. founder Nolan Bushnell to leave the company in 1978.

source: wikipedia

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Hokuto Force, Really Proud Lamers and Laxity.

Download:

• Bable Bable +2 (1443)
• Sheep Out! +2H [pal/ntsc] (1438)
• Camels in Space +2 [pal/ntsc] (1440)
• Sheepoid +7HFD 101% [pal/ntsc] (1667)
• Better Dead Than Alien +6PDFH [pal/ntsc] (1476)

source: csdb.dk

Shadowolf has published a web page where you can download the beta version of  SD2IEC firmware.

SD2IEC is a hardware mass storage device using an SD/MMC card and interfacing with the IEC bus. It is based on the ATmega644 or ATmega1284p microcontroller from the Atmel AVR microcontroller family.

The most prominent use of SD2IEC is emulation/replacement of a Commodore-1541 disk drive for a C64. Hardware and the microcontroller’s firmware is available as open source (GPL).

source: SD2Iec Firmware (Latest nightly build)

CBM prg Studio Version 2.3.0 is released. There are a lot of new features in this version. I’d really appreciate it if you report any bugs you find or have any suggestions/comments.

CBM prg Studio allows you to type a BASIC or Machine Code program in using a nice Windows environment and convert it to a ‘.prg’ file which you can run on an emulator, or even a real C64 or VIC20 if you’re feeling brave and have the right kit.

CBM prg Studio is the result of merging C64PrgGen and VIC20PrgGen. Adding new features and fixing bugs in two apps which were 95% similar was a bit of a nightmare so merging them made sense.

It was also a good opportunity for a face lift and to add some new features, such as:

• Programs are project based, meaning all related source files, sprite files etc. are kept in one place and multiple source files can be linked more easily.
• Tabbed MDI.
• Syntax highlighting.

What CBM prg Studio isn’t is a front-end for tok64, cbmcnvrt, bastext or any other tokeniser / detokeniser / assembler. It’s all been written completely from scratch.

New Features in v2.3.0:

• Support for the C16 and Plus/4 machines.
• Undo/redo for character, sprite, and screen designers.
• Support for illegal opcodes.
• Screen designer added to C128 platform (40 column, c64 mode only).
• Start page.

Major bugs fixed:

• Commodore key (in screen designer) producing wrong code for certain colours.
• PI keyword not recognised.
• DATA keyword coloured incorrectly.
• Occasional duplicate start address in new project wizard.
• Wrong link address for VIC 20 projects in generated SYS call.
• Renumbering programs with no destination line numbers after GOTO, GOSUB etc.
• Lowercase text not handled correctly by ‘text’ directive.
• Some minor MMI issues.

Download: CBM prg Studio v2.3.0 (896)

source: ajordison.co.uk

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The Everdrive is essentially an interface which allows your ageing console to communicate with an SD card. Using software loaded directly onto the device, the Everdrive boasts a simple menu which allows you to navigate your way around your SD card and load one of hundreds of ROMs into its flash memory. This takes only a few seconds and once the process is complete it’s as if you’ve slotted the original cartridge into your machine.

The Everdrive itself is manufactured in the Ukraine by a talented guy known as Krikzz. He only sends out the bare circuit board so you may want to cannibalize an existing cartridge to create a suitable case. Setting up the Everdrive is relatively straightforward; you simply format your SD card in FAT32 and then drop your ROMs into organised files. One thing you have to note is that each folder cannot have more than 512 items in it, so it’s a good idea to create a folder for each letter of the alphabet and then transfer the files into each.

The Everdrive can be ordered direct from its creator via his website or via resellers on various auction sites.

Everdrive Video Review:

source: krikzz.com meanmachinesmag.co.uk gp2x.de 8bitplus.co.uk

XSidplay2 is a QT based music player for SID music.

It is based onto Michael Schwendt’s XSIDPLAY, the historical SID player for Linux, actually no more developed by the author.

from the author:

This version implement a runtime libraries selection (for now however, it must be used one library in one executable as there are some more name conflicts to remove).

It now uses libsidplayfp with resid 1.0 by default (resid-fp emulation will be added in next versions). Consider this as a testing version, so please report bug or issue you find in it.

Download: sourceforge

source: sourceforge.net/projects/xsidplay2/

Commodore Free Magazine Issue #61

Free to download Commodore magazine dedicated to Commodore Computers.

Download:

• Commodore Free Magazine Issue #61 (D64) (992)
• Commodore Free Magazine Issue #61 (PDF) (989)
• Commodore Free Magazine Issue #61 (TXT) (1076)

source: commodorefree.com

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from Wikipedia:

The Super Scope, or Nintendo Scope in Europe and Australia, is the official Super Nintendo light gun. It was released in the European and North American markets, with a limited release in Japan due to a lack of consumer demand.

It is a wireless gun and uses an infrared receiver which plugs into the right port of the console, comparable to the Menacer for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It has two action buttons, a pause button, a power switch and is powered by six AA batteries.

source: wikipedia

Some new games (Cracked / Trained or Unrealeased) for Commodore 64 have been released from your favorites groups: Genesis Project, Nostalgia, ElfKaa and Lifeless Incorporated

Download:

• Splat! +3D (1474)
• Time Res-Q +5H (1433)
• Snakes +2H (1438)
• Bock +PHD (1413)
• Cosmic Crusader +3H (1438)
• Munch Man 64 +H (1462)
• Hot Rod +8 101% (1446)
• Arcades Compilation #3 for Easyflash [pal/ntsc] (1528)
• Caveman Ugh-Lympics DHR [ntsc/pal] & Easyflash (1552)

source: csdb.dk

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Nintendo 64 (ニンテンドウ64 Nintendō Rokujūyon?), often referred to as N64, is Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market.

Named for the 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil. It is Nintendo′s last home console to use ROM cartridges to store games (Nintendo switched to a MiniDVD-based format for the successor GameCube); handhelds in the Game Boy line, however, continued to use Game Paks. It was discontinued in 2002 in Japan, North America and PAL regions by the launch of Nintendo′s GameCube.

The N64 was released with two launch games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, and a third in Japan, Saikyō Habu Shōgi. The N64′s suggested retail price was US$199 at its launch and it was later marketed with the slogan “Get N, or get Out!”. The console was released in at least eight variants with different colors and sizes. An assortment of limited edition controllers were sold or used as contest prizes during the N64′s lifespan. The N64 sold 32.93 million units worldwide, and in 2009 it was named the 9th greatest video game console by IGN, out of a field of 25. The N64 was a very popular main prize on Double Dare 2000.

source: wikipedia

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from Old-Computers Museum homepage:

The Sharp MZ 700 series replaced the aging MZ 80 (MZ 80K, MZ 80A and MZ 80B) series. Moreover, the MZ 700 was compatible with the MZ 80K and MZ 80A. The MZ 700 series is composed of four machines: the first three models were launched in 1983 (November 1982 in Japan) and the last one was launched in late 1985 (in fact, this one is the “ancestor” of the MZ 800): MZ 711 was the “naked” model (without any peripheral).

Model description:

• MZ 721, has an integrated tape recorder
• MZ 731, has built-in plotter and tape recorder).
• MZ 780 which was actually a MZ 731 with a 80 columns card, a floppy disk drive and a Centronics port. It worked under CP/M.

There was no language in ROM (the ROM size is only 2 KB, it is just used for boot and OS calls), it has to be loaded from tape. So there was a lot of languages adapted for this machine (more than five versions of BASIC, assemblers, Pascal, Lisp, C, Fortran, Comal, Forth, & others). The games were a bit poor because of the low resolution (which was actually graphical characters), but there were 512 graphic characters in ROM, which can be used to offset it (sort of).

Later this model it will be replaced with the MZ 800.

source: old-computers.com wikipedia

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from Old-Computers Museum:

Radiola and Schneider became Philips subsidiaries in 1990 when Philips bought the French Schneider TV assembly plant located in Le Mans – the West of France – and then named Radiotechnique (RTC). The Radiola, Schneider and Philips VG-5000 were exactly same machines, apart from the case colour. They were conceived and manufactured in the RTC Le Mans factory and only intended for the French market.

At the time, RTC also made the “Minitel”, a phone video terminal almost each French family owned. To save costs, the VG-5000 keyboard was thus taken from the Minitel and slightly altered. Several Philips computer were also sold under Radiola and Schneider names, among them, the VG-8000 and VG-8020. Although it was sold under three brand names, the VG-5000 didn’t sell well, because of its limited capacities, rare and expensive peripherals, and lack of good software.

source: old-computers.com vg5k.free.fr